The recent heavy defeats suffered by Tottenham at the hands of Manchester City and Liverpool played a big part in chairman Daniel Levy's decision to sack Andre Villas-Boas, according to the Daily Mail.

Neil Ashton also believes there were other contributing factors, including Levy's concern over Tottenham's style of play, and the Chairman's anger at the isolation of Emmanuel Adebayor.

Villas-Boas was sacked following his side's humiliating 5-0 defeat to Liverpool at White Hart Lane on Sunday.

The result came only three weeks after another huge defeat, this time at the hands of Manchester City at the Etihad.

Levy had reportedly been furious with the manner of the defeat to Manuel Pellegrini's side, and had vowed never to be put through such a humiliating defeat again.

The fact the result against Brendan Rodgers side came just three weeks later, left Levy in little doubt it was time to let Villas-Boas go.

It is understood Levy held tense discussions with Villas-Boas in the immediate aftermath of Sunday's defeat, in which he demanded striker Emmanuel Adebayor be re-integrated into the team, despite his personal differences with the forward.

The former Arsenal forward has been frozen out by Villas-Boas all season, only making one appearance as a half time substitute in the 6-0 rout at City.

Villas-Boas was said to be frustrated the club had not signed Brazilian forward Hulk in the summer as he had requested, and was quick to remind Levy of this during the discussions.

There has been speculation surrounding how many of Tottenham's summer signings were the choice of the former Chelsea boss, and he offered an interesting response when questioned how many of the current first team he would choose to work with in his post match press conference on Sunday.

"I’m not sure I can make it public. We have worked hard to build a strong team and we have a strong team and we are happy with the signings," Villas-Boas said.

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